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Saturday, March 19, 2011

When Is Nudity Art or Porn

Michelangelo Adam & Eve, the Fall

From all of history to date, the human body has been one of the principal subjects in any art form. Ergo, to portray the nakedness of the human body expressed in an art medium does not necessarily mean it is pornography. After all, weren't we all born naked? Do you feel anything pornographic about that? I personally have yet to hear an Art Curator or Museum Tour Guide in the hallways of any Museum of Art to explain the paintings of Gauguin, Rembrandt, Vecellio or Reni as pornographic material. And all these masters depicted nudity in their art. When did the depiction of nakedness move into the state of obscenity and moral ineptitude?

Rembrandt (Bathsheba)

Where do you draw the line between art and pornography or porn? PORN after all is defined as the representation or portrayal of explicit sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual excitement or stimulation and erotic satisfaction.

If that is the case, what makes a 21st century black and white photograph of a woman depicted in silhouettes of lights and shadows a form of porn? Why would people classify the work of Rene' de Haan, John Carmichael or even Christopher John Ball as erotic and porn? Is it because the medium has progressed to photography from oil and canvas?

I am not totally getting the argument. Who started this anal and morally upright revolution to label an expression of art as explicit sexual material? I don't remember my parents telling me that I should not look at Michelangelo's David because this might stir certain sexual feelings in me when I saw it and I was 8 years old. Is it because of technology and the internet? Is it because some wise guy in Wikipedia illustrated pornography as: (I quote)

Un-freaking-believable! Go watch a live Sex Act, its not really porn, because it is not a "depiction", it is totally real!!!

I find it absolutely ironic, all this fuss about exposing the children to nudity and sexual materials. Is it the child's fault if the internet access liberally welcomes him into gazillions of information that crosses from art to porn, particularly in these times when we, (categorized as mature adults), have become so warped and pretentious because of the conflicting signals society, the government and even the Church gives us? We can't even tell the difference.

I just want to get real here. Nakedness is not an abomination. It is not supposed to defy any principle of nature. To create an environment where a child flinches at his naked body is more criminal to me than to educate him about being comfortable in his skin. Clothing your nakedness is a societal norm, and we comply. Photographs of half-naked women breastfeeding their children in some third world country does not make it porn. Does it?

Rene De Haan - Nude B&W

The depiction of the beauty of the female anatomy in a painting, a book, or a photograph, or in any other media of art, is not porn. I would like to believe that the woman's anatomy is naturally designed with the curves, not just for aesthetic reasons, and if it is captured in art, how can I consider that an explicit come-on? And just because during the Renaissance, the acceptable woman form was Reuben-esque, does not make the 21st century woman who is toned and shapely, photographed or sketched, to be any less art.

Listen, if you have children and kids, and parenting on art, sex, nudity and porn, is a challenge; perhaps you need to go work on your own mindset first. If you are not a parent yet, go deal with your own fixations, before even thinking of becoming a parent. If you can't even be honest and coherent with how you think and feel about all these concepts, what gives you the moral ascendancy to educate and explain these gray areas to the children?

The line between art and porn is both unintelligible and questionable. I prefer to trust my own belief and value systems that I attribute to my upbringing, education and experience. Whilst what I embrace may not be perfect or right for everyone, I just know that there are very few certainties in life besides death and taxes. I was born naked. And so was everybody else. Nudity, porn, and all of these will never go away. I might as well learn to deal with their realities. To begin with, it is appreciation of ART that distinguishes man from animals; who gave the right to anyone to eliminate that distinction?

I have always been biased to Impressionism. And I leave you with quotes from two famous painters of this art movement.

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas, After the bath

Rene de Haan, Portfolio

"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at." Claude Monet

19 comments:

art is whatever you like. Ive had to write a lot of papers on modernist signifiers and the postmodernism focus instead on the signified.All the papers and lectures never changed what I liked. I love Francis Bacon and confess to adoring the female body naked. The usa is a immature about nudity mainly because due to some biblical assumptions and for ( Ive been there, it used to be such a lovely place but has really gone down hill), psychological reasons too I suppose. I like my mom, so maybe that's why I love a woman's body and don't see it as pornography when I see a photo or painting at an art show. Im staring at a nude kid I painted holding a cross right now lol!, so I maybe I should be careful or I'll be arrested for distributing child porn.Another great article psycho. :)

I'll tell ya who started the revolution to label an expression of art as explicit sexual material...A bunch of perverts, cause if that's all you see, that all that's on your mind. In college I took life drawing classes, and drew from live nude models. It's not about sex, when you attempt to render the female form in all its complex glory. I still draw female figures, and it's hardly porn, yet endlessly fascinating.

Great article, Psycho. As a previous comment mentioned, Americans are immature when it comes to nudity and sex and stuff. I personally come from a household where the "s" word (*gasp*) was not allowed. If we were caught masterb......I can't even finish the word is how brainwashed we were as children. Anyway, if we got caught going that we got in trouble. I since have never done that for the fear of wrath and hellfire or whatever.Anyway, I digress... As for porn vs art, I totally see where you are coming from. I don't view those pictures as anything BUT art. Especially not that Rene De Haan up there. Very elegant if you ask me.

I suppose it is all in how a depiction makes one feel. Uncomfortable? Aroused? Stoic?

I have to admit I adore the female body... it's beautiful and I think people call it porn only when they are feeling uncomfortable or insecure. Whether it's a painting or a photograph, if it doesn't have a sexually explicit vibe to it then it is indeed an artistic expression.

@ River - thanks dude. Nah, you're as perverted as anyone can be. hahaha. Just kidding. You dabble i painting, I know you feel me.@ Hansi - can we burn these perverts?@ Onyx - I know what you mean. Everything is porn to some eyes.@ Kristen - as a graphic artist, the women's lines are just perfect isn't it? I can't believe why some people find it terrifying.@ Dirty - why do I want to know that link? lmao!

It depends on the "spirit of the law" rather than the "letter of the law" in my opinion. Whether or not art is porn depends on why it was created. Was it created to celebrate life and natural beauty, or was it created only to be shocking or to incite arousal?

Thanks Kim. Kisses right back at ya!Steph - I think it is most difficult to guess on motives and intentions. But artists "express" themselves through their medium. The law in the US is clear about how it is depicted, not how it was designed to be.DCG - I got it. ",)

Let me tell you a little story about a town called Amsterdam. We were there for our honeymoon, or at least part of it. Sex is open and never hidden. The sex stores are not closed like ours, but open like normal department stores. In Amsterdam people discuss and talk about sex just like we would have a discussion about the latest fashions, the latest movie or what we're having for dinner tonight. Amsterdam has the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies and STD's as well as abortions. Or one of the lowest. And I believe it is down to making sex part of your daily life, and teaching responsibility around it, instead of making it taboo and not to be done. Seriously, who was the wise ass who thought that by telling a teenager it was off limits, it would prohibit them from doing it?

You ask who started the uptight, anal-ness...in my short life, I've seen the fight against all expression led by the right wing. People like Ernest Angely, Billy Graham, the PMRC, Ronald "mcdonald" Reagan and his white-bread wife, the Bush's, etc, etc. They are all part of a much larger "movement" to supress life in all it's glory; beautiful and ugly. We are all much more productive and moldable if we "tow-the-line", ignore our dreams, and kill our natural creativity and beauty.Unfortunately, even though this can't succeed, ever, it has worked to some degree. Combined with the corporate media, marketing and advertising regime, whole generations are blinded, limited and controlled.Fortunately, life is very cyclical and generations re-generate.True freedom and love of life comes in waves...I'm hoping that one day the waves become tsunamis...hugs to this breath of fresh air blog...

I thoroughly enjoyed this article. I completely agree with your views which is quite obvious given the art I include in my blog. I think people need to be more open minded to the beauty that is out there. Nude photography is so fascinating because every body (no pun intended) is different and unique. Very well written article and I look forward to reading more.

Thank you for your article, I enjoyed reading and shared it with my readers and my friends. You have also insprired me to write an article showcasing a couple of artists that I know that draw fabulous pictures of some models that i promote, as well as some of the photography in the adult industry that I have come across that I consider to be very artistic. thanks again :)

About Me

I love to write, to paint, to sing and dance. I listen to people for a living. Explains why I have earned enough battle scars to ramble and rant. Life is simple, but people are not. I am a student of both.